Open Thread – Weekend 18 Nov 2023
1,171 responses to “Open Thread – Weekend 18 Nov 2023”
-
Utterly Revolting: Male Volleyball Player Shouts Obscene Taunt at Opposing Girls Team
“Did my penis distract you?”
-
The latest narrative regarding the massacre at the music festival is that hamas just stumbled on it, didn’t know it was on and that most of the casualties were caused by an Israeli Apache helicopter*.
Bullshit. The way the propaganda is going, in a year’s time, this abomination will be turned into a mass suicide ala Jones Town with the poor old pallis having nothing to do with it.
-
By at latest the 1970s, those “camps” were comprised of multi-story reinforced concrete apartment blocks.
Puts a different light on the “refugee” status. Not quite glamping, but certainly not the Somalia/Kenya border style. For all practical purposes, except harassing Israel, they were migrants settled in a new country.
Not really. Some of the camps may have become apartments but they weren’t all like that. Not at all, certainly not in the 70s. Further, they were still stateless. They weren’t incorporated pre-67 nor post-67, except in Jordan.
-
JC
Nov 19, 2023 12:36 PM
I don’t know what’s going on with the place. Maybe it’s incidental, but everything I’ve bought or had bought for me that’s packaged, like medications, etc., is packed so tightly that you can’t open them up. You need scissors to get to the meds and lids are impossible.
It’s called child-proof packaging I think.
-
“We’re worried by the trajectory of this all, and it all began with some vicious chants, and sermons by clerics in Western Sydney, inciting their flocks against our community and we’ve seen it progress to physical confrontation, vandalism of shops and where it goes from here is terrifying and a sobering thing to think about.”
8 1
Who is this vile anti-Semite here?
Cass said to me yesterday she’s beginning to prefer the term anti-Jew.
Who is that here? -
Not really. Some of the camps may have become apartments but they weren’t all like that. Not at all, certainly not in the 70s. Further, they were still stateless. They weren’t incorporated pre-67 nor post-67, except in Jordan.
Dover, they were given numerous opportunities to creat a Palestinian State, but rejected them all in favour of constant jihad against Israel. This jihad only led to further defensive measures taken by Israel.
Getting rid of Hamas now has to be the circuit breaker in all of this.
-
Ranga, sorry, I thought you saw me as the grey-hair old dear passing around tea at the end of Rabz’ music video.
Look, my boozies have been endless fun here, as a little flirtation, and they really are not false nor wizened, for not every woman my age is a dried up old prune. But it’s all just a joke, Joyce.
Just as some of you old geezers still like to imagine yourselves in your prime, and maybe some of you are even in pretty good form. I like to imagine so anyway, for a little flirting, as was agreed here long ago, is the stuff of life.
Let’s not forget though that the main sex organ is the brain and I see evidence of plenty of good brains here, both male and female, of all ages.
-
And this was long before Covid. But, somehow, the information never quite made it to the public domain.
-
Net zero means precisely nothing. As this article points out, it takes on whatever meaning is attributed to it. Just like carbon “offsets” are a total fake. The entire fraud of global warming exists for the sole purpose of enabling those in power to take control of our lives, while enriching themselves.
Achieving “Net Zero” will be so expensive no Government will even attempt to Estimate the Total Cost
-
Jump Around, Cats … 🙂
-
@Elizabeth
How the word Byzantine turned from a noun to an adjective?
“they were given numerous opportunities to creat a Palestinian State, but rejected them all in favour of constant jihad against Israel. ”
I don’t know if this is true. Already a lot of people have made thier minds up and the precipitating events are now so long in the past that they are beyond contest.
God Have Mercy on Us all ..since we fail to have any upon each other.
-
James Woods’ view –
-
-
Worth putting up the detail here. Basically similar to Australia but some differences due to the welfare nature of the State, which applies across the board, whereas it doesn’t in America.
A strong case can be made that assessed by characteristics of middle class security and prosperity rather than income, the middle class has effectively shrunk to 10% of households as only the top 30% of households earn enough to afford what was within reach of the top 60% in decades past.
By definition, the top 20% cannot be “middle class.” The top 20% is comprised of the upper-middle class, the wealthy and the super-wealthy (the 80% to 95% bracket, top 5% and the top 1%).
Attempting to define the middle class by income alone is futile due to regional differences in costs and purchasing power. $100,000 annual household income that will barely pay rent and necessities in a major metro city can stretch considerably further in smaller cities far from high-cost zones.
Regardless of income, households that are living paycheck to paycheck don’t qualify as middle class if we qualify “middle class” by these characteristics:
In Why the Middle Class Is Doomed (April 2012) I listed five “threshold” characteristics of membership in the middle class:
1. Meaningful healthcare insurance (i.e. not phantom coverage that only kicks in after thousands of dollars are paid in cash).
2. Significant equity (25%-50%) in a home or other real estate.
3. Income/expenses that enable the household to save at least 6% of its net income.
4. Significant retirement funds: 401Ks, IRAs, etc.
5. The ability to service all debt and expenses over the medium-term if one of the primary household wage-earners lose their job.
I then added a taken-for-granted sixth:
6. Reliable vehicles for each wage-earner that are fully covered by insurance.
Author Chris Sullins suggested adding these additional thresholds:
7. If a household requires government assistance (SNAP, Medicaid, rent subsidies, etc.) to maintain the family lifestyle, their middle class status is in doubt.
8. A percentage of non-financial hard assets such as family heirlooms, precious metals, business equity, rental income property, land, etc. that can be transferred to the next generation, i.e. generational wealth.
9. Ability to invest in offspring (education, extracurricular clubs/training, etc.).
10. Leisure time devoted to the maintenance of physical/spiritual/mental fitness.
Correspondent Mark G. suggested two more:
11. Continual accumulation of human and social capital (adding new skills, expanding social networks and markets for one’s services, etc.)
And the money shot:
12. Family ownership of income-producing assets such as rental properties, bonds, etc.
The key point of these thresholds is that propping up a precarious illusion of consumption and status signifiers does not qualify as middle class. To qualify as middle class (that is, what was considered middle class a generation or two ago), the household must actually own/control wealth that won’t vanish if the investment bubble du jour pops, and won’t be wiped out by a medical emergency. In Chris’s phrase, “They should be focusing resources on the next generation and passing on Generational Wealth” as opposed to “keeping up appearances” via aspirational consumption financed with debt.
So how much does it cost to meet these qualifying standards? Two generations ago, public school teachers, healthcare workers, skilled craft workers and others with median-level incomes could meet all of these qualifications, for the purchasing power of their earnings was extremely high compared to now. A median wage bought a lot of shelter, vehicle, healthcare, college education, etc.
According to the US Census Bureau, Real median household income was $74,580 in 2022. (Source: Income in the United States: 2022) This is the “middle income” that presumably qualifies as “middle class,” but it would take extreme frugality and sacrifices to stretch $75,000 to cover the qualifications listed above, even in low-cost regions.
As a general guideline, $75,000 would only stretch to meet these qualifications if 1) the family home was owned free and clear, i.e. no mortgage, either via inheritance or extreme efforts such as building your own home with cash savings, 2) no student loan debt, either by gaining desirable skills outside college or completing college on scholarships, with family financial aid, etc., and no vehicle loan, i.e. a reliable used car/truck that is owned free and clear.
These may strike younger readers as impossible fantasies, but as I’ve often noted here, forty years ago I worked my way through a four-year university program with part-time jobs and built a house from scratch with only savings, income from temp construction jobs and a $5,000 bank loan ($17,000 in today’s dollars) which we paid off in two years.
Even with extreme frugality, this debt-free lifestyle is no longer within reach of the non-wealthy, as costs for college, land, permits and building materials have skyrocketed, along with the costs of healthcare, insurance, vehicles, childcare, etc.
I submit that for most households in higher-cost regions, these qualifications can only be met with an annual household income of $150,000 or more, which according to the Census Bureau, is the cutoff level for the top 20% (top quintile) of American households.
According to the Census Bureau, the top 20% earn 52% of all income, and the top 5% earn 23.5% of all income. The top 10% of households have an income of $216,000 or higher, and the top 5% have incomes of $295,000 or higher. The top 1% bracket is $867,000 and up. (TableA-4a, Income in the United States: 2022).
In lower-cost regions, it may be possible for frugal households in the 70% to 80% income bracket to qualify. According to the Census Bureau, this bracket earns between $118,700 and $153,000. This 10% might qualify as middle class. Households earning less would likely qualify only if they inherited significant wealth from their families or received substantial financial aid from their families, such as college paid for in full, a down payment for a home purchase, etc.
In summary: if we set minimum standards for qualifying as middle class by what was within reach of typical American households two generations ago, relatively few households qualify as middle class. Middle class means more than being able to charge a lavish cruise or foreign vacation on a credit card or buying a new truck with a huge loan. It once meant owning assets, not owing debt on assets.
-
This is what happens when you lose respect for life.
80% of Dutch support assisted suicide for people without terminal illnesses: poll
-
Bolto – tell it to those wide eyed li’l students at the Henry Kissinger Peace Academy.
They are not being needing a re-Ron (again) … 😕
-
Knuckle Dragger
Nov 19, 2023 3:25 PM
Today – 19 November – is International Men’s Day.Ladies, put your embroidery down and get cracking.
Nothin extravagant. Ham, cheese, a bit of turkey, mustard and geez, would it kill you to toast it?
Then go away. The World Cup final’s on in a couple of hours.
I might go quietly here.
Had a visit today from the granddaughter of one of the former owners of our place. There are funny little bakelite switches in a few main rooms which I had always assumed were redundant electric light switches.
But no. They were to summon the help.
I suggested they’d be great to get them hooked up again for uninterrupted crickit watching. One buzz for drinks. Two buzzes for snacks.
Apparently that won’t be happening. -
-
Indolent
Nov 19, 2023 7:45 PM
Why the Support for Hamas?This is an interesting but ultimately incorrect over analysis of the psychology of hamas and islam in general.
In the criminal law system you quickly realise that the vast majority of all crimes are recidivist; that a small minority of people do them. As consequences diminish that minority drag a few more in, still a minority but sufficient to threaten social cohesion. Some societies have taken this degrading process, wrapped it in an ideology and used it to dominate. Nazism is one example, communism another; but islam has perfected it. Behaviour and actions in islam which would be abhorred, or used to be, in the West are fundamental in islam. This behaviour is focused and motivated towards designated groups, everyone who is not muslim. These targets have a hierarchy: Israel/jews, then the West, then differing types of islam.
Saying as the article does that something in Jews, their success, the biblical antecedents, which breeds motivating jealousy in islam ignores this basic fact: islam is motivated to hate Israel, Jews and the West not by any quality they have other than they are not part of islam. The motivation is within islam itself: it is a culture of hate and war.
The fact that our leaders and media ignore this means an otherwise imminently beatable enemy, islam, is winning.
-
Complacent, uncaring, unfunny, snot gobblers at an “insiders only “.. Oh gosh arent we all hillarious !!?
Did you not get the applause you were looking for at the lollipop blog?
Make your point, and defend it if necessary. That is the nature of debate.
If you turn up here – or anywhere – and obfuscate, fence-sit and be deliberately obscure, of course you’re going to be ignored or taken to task.
This giant display of sookage demeans everyone. Mainly you.
-
How do you make this ‘electricity’? I don’t know, replies the securely-clueless hapless modern yoof.
A window on our future? Says it all, really.
How would you explain it to ancient greeks, Lizzie?
They were quite open the the idea of unknown forces in nature as well as being interested in things as yet unexplained, Dr. BG. Don’t forget they invented trigenometry and astronomy. They weren’t bad at brain work.
They were already wondering about electrostatic materials, such as amber.
I’d start there.
Our current yoof have only Gaia to guide them; back to deities and magic for them.
-
-
The point of the Powerline pic was that these yoof feel absolutely entitled in the rightness of their opinions about everything, and would happily take on the instruction of ‘lesser mortals’ in earlier times; these yoof however not having much in the way of scientific analysis and knowledge to guide them in their ‘teaching the ancients’ project. Dumbed down schools and universities are to blame for that.
-
No no bespoke, there is some evidence of people who may have been killed haaretz only suggests a few, a security guard at a kibbutz, possibly people in a house in bee’ri by a tank, I didn’t look hard enough at the helicopter story, though it was hamas in Jeeps fleeing to the border who may have had hostages but the Nova story is a fabrication.
Israeli army did not fire on own civilians at Nova music festival
-
-
Who else could get out the full string section, except the 3000!?
-
Weird shit. Contemporaneous historical accounts too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Pedro_Mountains_Mummy
Read it before Wikipedia gets censored by the people Voltaire used to mock.
The direct connection between the stories pertaining the race of tiny people, known as Nimerigar, attacking with a blow to the head allow theorists to make a direct connection to the remains of “Pedro” and “Chiquita”. The theory of a race of “little people” in America has been peddled throughout history, and had been a topic of interest for Anthropologists, Scientists, and Geologists alike. It was widely reported in the New York Times and The Anthropological Journal in 1876 that a six acre graveyard was discovered in Coffee County, Tennessee and contained a tribe of people who were measured at around three feet of height. They were also said to have been found in sitting and standing positions, and were also found to have wisdom teeth, suggesting that they were not children. This is referred to as a pygmy grave, and is still a mystery in the sense that we do not know what these beings were doing all together in this grave. Also reported with this specific news, it was discovered that there was an eerily similar find at a site in Ohio, near Cochocton.
???!!!
If human habitation in the Americas predates Clovis, you have to wonder if people slowly adapted to become smaller and smaller? I’ve seen some estimates of up to 45,000 years in the Americas. Lewis and Clark….well I leave you with this: from Wiki again:
“…on August 25, Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and 10 other men traveled about 9 miles (14 km) north of the river’s junction with the Missouri River to see the “mountain of the Little People”. Lewis wrote in his journal that the Little People were “deavals” (devils) with very large heads, about 18 inches (46 cm) high, and very alert to any intrusions into their territory.”…”
Astonishing if you think about it.
-
And even if I did, here is scarcely the place to try to engage in worthwhile discussion
Look. Champ.
This is one of – nay, the – greatest and most robust platforms in this wide brown land. This is the home of ‘worthwhile discussion’, and you actually don’t discuss anything.
It’s like listening to the mad uncle at Christmas you are subjected to every year as small children. ‘When I was in prison, I used to – oh, look at that bird. I give birds my own special names. Anyway, I wore an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time’.
What do you expect? By the way, you appear to be pretty thin-skinned for a bloke that apparently showered with other blokes for years on end. Even that story turned into a remarkable shadow of The Shawshank Redemption.
Lay off the LSD strips and just make a point.
-
Banks .. ya gotta luv ’em … FFS!
Looking at my CommBank monthly credit card statement and sighted an entry I’d never seen before .. “monthly charge $6” nothing else …. soooooo checked those “terms & conditions” emails I never read and, lo & behold, one from October .. “from this month (October) instead of a yearly fee your card now has a $6 month charge”…….
Yearly it was $35 now it’ll be $72 …….. -
dover0beach
Nov 19, 2023 7:09 PM
By at latest the 1970s, those “camps” were comprised of multi-story reinforced concrete apartment blocks.Puts a different light on the “refugee” status. Not quite glamping, but certainly not the Somalia/Kenya border style. For all practical purposes, except harassing Israel, they were migrants settled in a new country.
Not really. Some of the camps may have become apartments but they weren’t all like that. Not at all, certainly not in the 70s. Further, they were still stateless. They weren’t incorporated pre-67 nor post-67, except in Jordan.
They were still stateless, probably for two reasons:
First, no Arab nation wants them as citizens, which might say something about them;
Second, Arab nations saw value in having the large population of “refugees” as a means to stir up trouble with Israel.
-
They were already wondering about electrostatic materials, such as amber.
I’d start there.
It’s a loooong long way from amber to a generator. You’d have to find magnets and copper wire for starters. I agree that the yoof have no idea how ignorant they are. It’s a worry. But they’ve always been like that. It’s the fact that their teachers are every bit as bad that’s the bigger problem.
-
@ Knuckle Dragger
I already did … I made it abundantly clear. I am a student of propaganda … I like to go where it is promulgated and get the feel of it.
The reason why I gave a truthful account of my background is why I always do. To see if I can find some commonality with the people I am hoping to engage with… invariably their life experiences will be different from mine.
But I love the words “I dont know” …
-
The latest narrative regarding the massacre at the music festival is that hamas just stumbled on it, didn’t know it was on and that most of the casualties were caused by an Israeli Apache helicopter
That is certainly one of the spins given to the Haaretz article that talks about this, but putting that aside, it’s been discussed for weeks that some of those killed at or near the festival and at the kibbutz were from friendly fire, whether from helicopter and/ or tank fire.
-
British Communists, circa 1979 … 🙂
-
The original article with complete footage that was repurposed by ‘Syriangirl’
the decision was made to prioritize the immediate halt of the influx of Hamas terrorists and the potentially dangerous Gaza mobs breaching the border -
A brunette in a red dress, wandering around a wood … 🙂
-
Well we can confirm at least one death by friendly fire but as the article says helicopters targeted the borders to prevent more hamas and thousands of ‘civilians’ penetrating into Israel.
And yes if they were shooting at retreating vehicles that possibly had hostages aboard there would have been more idf caused Israeli deaths.
It should be pretty obvious though that ‘IDF killed everyone at the Nova festival’ is a bit fat lie. -
-
That is certainly one of the spins
The Left and the taqiyya jockeys are in overdrive.
Far-left Tries to Deny Israeli Women Were Raped, Assaulted During Hamas Attack (17 Nov)
Many other stories around about such contortions and gymnastics. They can’t cope with the idea that Hamas muslims are bloodthirsty baby killers. So they deny reality. Their imaginary world is quite intricate, and a complete fantasy.
-
The same brunette in a white dress …
Pure beauty, Cats – if you might find yourself cross and depressed and generally not feeling that great – just watch. 🙂
-
@KD
“This is the home of ‘worthwhile discussion’, and you actually don’t discuss anything.”
Oh really ?
When I first started posting I got a deluge of derision from people who had already decided who I was and where I came from ..
I didn’t mind the rudeness.. that sort of interaction happens. But the way I had already been strawmaned and categorized … before I even had the chance to explore any kind of discussion …
I became a figment of your imagination …
As I have always said .. I am here to explore the phenomenon of propaganda…
-
You realise you are heading deep into the giant race of Tartaria…..
I swear I have provided an X-ray, an excerpt from Lewis and Clark’s diaries and contemporaneous accounts of discoveries in the popular and academic press.
It doesn’t count?
Okay. I’ll make You Tube account and drive around random cities and assume any building I can’t get in is run by the Freemasons.
-
The reason why I gave a truthful account of my background is why I always do.
You told us you did 12 years for a very serious crime (you say you were falsely accused) and yet you can’t say what years you went in and out of Acacia Prison.
This is very strange. You have used your “real name” but me asking this question is doxxing you?
Bizarre.
-
Me, earlier:
This is the home of ‘worthwhile discussion’, and you actually don’t discuss anything.
Then:
I am here to explore the phenomenon of propaganda…
Oh my wordy lordy.
‘Hello. I am here to discuss the nature of propaganda.’
‘What is propaganda?’
‘I was a shoppie (that should enhance my cred).’
‘Why is the sky blue?’
‘I went to prison (massive cred, surely).’
‘Where do the butterflies go when it rains?’You’re either not serious, or you are serious and only post when you’re having a break from mowing the roof.
-
Brian Blessed’s finest moment,in “I, Claudius.”
“Is there any among you who has NOT slept with my daughter? Take them out, I’ll deal with them later!”
-
While listening to some Johnny Marr on the Guitar …
-
Rabz,. At the risk of being door knocked by JC’s goons, I am prepared to humbly suggest that Christina may be a challenge to the magnificant Kate Hepburn.
No no, please don’t hit me again, I’m sorry.
‘Candyman’ is an extraordinary production and she gives most of those four octives a workout. Shame about the fat calves!
-
Dover, they were given numerous opportunities to creat a Palestinian State, but rejected them all in favour of constant jihad against Israel.
I don’t think that’s true. PLO/ Fatah accepted the Oslo Accords even though it failed to acknowledge a right of return nor did it provide anything more than limited autonomy over West Bank or Gaza.
Getting rid of Hamas now has to be the circuit breaker in all of this.
You’re not going to get rid of Hamas. You might dent it temporarily but it will only multiple following these events.
-
Miss Planet – brunettes just doing it right, again 🙂
-
Long Cool Woman (In A Black Dress)
One of the best beat builds in the business. And while the lady is not a cute owl I’ll make her an honorary one.
-
-
-
The Crickit Whirled Cup final is in progress.
Between Straya and the Injuns.
“Where is Engerland?” I hear you ask.
Well, they’ve been home eating kippers and complaining about the weather for three weeks, having finished seventh.
Something to reflect upon. The Poms are great at inventing sports for the rest of the world to beat them at (and then complain when they fall foul of the rules they wrote themselves).
It’s not just crickit.
They just buried their last winning soccer whirled cup captain, who died of old age and possibly exasperation with the increasingly novel ways Engerland would find to exit whirled cups before the semis.
As far as International competition goes, it’s been pretty slim pickings since the Armada and Waterloo. -
A goil …
-
They were still stateless, probably for two reasons:
First, no Arab nation wants them as citizens, which might say something about them;
Second, Arab nations saw value in having the large population of “refugees” as a means to stir up trouble with Israel.
Re 1, the Jordanians accepted over a million. Re 2, that was also certain part of the problem, but it’s also true that many of these same states were only recently created and accepting hundreds of thousands of refugees was no small imposition on them in the immediate post-WW2 era. Moreover, many of the people displaced in ’48 didn’t want to be resettled, they wanted to go back to their homes.
-
Actually if I could live forever, even if it meant sinking my fangs into the jugular of young virgins (which I do anyway ) ..wouldnt it be worth it to see what the Future holds?
-
Legitimate Grievances news (the Hun):
A Jewish man has been assaulted outside a Bentleigh East synagogue in what police are treating as a “racially motivated” incident.
The Herald Sun can reveal a man, aged in his 70s, was assaulted while walking into the Chabad on Cecil St about 10.40am on Saturday, November 18.
Attacked with a syringe, after the coward noticed Hebrew calendars in the old bloke’s car.
Nice, Palis. Real nice ideology you got there.
-
Let’s have some Sunday Evening Romance, Cats! 🙂
I met you at JC Penney
Your name tag, it said, Jennee,
Like a fruit that’s ripe for the pickin’
I wouldnee do you like that
Psycho chickens 😕Goil, you know I just wanna be with you
Cos only you’ve got the thang
I’ve just got to get withI’ll pick you up late at night after woik
I said laydee, step inside my Hyundai
I’m gonna take you up to Glendale
I’m gonna take you for a real good mealCos, when our eyes did meet
Goil, you knew I was packin’ heat …
Cos you’ve got the thang
That I’ve just got to get with …You’re just drivin’ me crazee, you li’l thang … 🙂
-
If only we had the strength of character to examine ourselves from the inside out…. It may be terrifying to begin with …
-
Oh you simps and dribblers … gotta own it… surely you didnt pass this one by ?
-
Also Debbie … I was in the hospital system back in they 80s ..sure AIDS was passed on by sexual intercourse … a lot of beautiful people died .. RIP Kenny Everet … but it was more complicated than we were being allowed to discuss…. some things never change .. the name “Faucci” keeps popping back up …
-
-
-
@MatrixTransform
I knew some folks that worked with him … apparently he was impossible.. probably why he was sacked so often.
You either got it or you didnt … probably the same with my beloved Spike …
And Barry Humpfries and Bill Leak … God Bless the Mad Buggers .. they give us at least a clue in how to try to stay sane …
-
Oh, I came out as a cricket tragic years ago, Arks!
Heck… I’m pretty much just a sport tragic. Very fond of curling, which is not something you admit to except amongst friends.
And in the time it took to pen that purple prose, Smiff is gone and the Alinta’s (h/t KD) are in more trouble than the early settlers.
Leave a Reply